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Hamas: agreement merely formalistic if Egypt imposes it

The national Palestinian agreement would not be sincerely implemented if Egypt tried to enforce it on the Palestinian rivals without real reconciliation, a Hamas lawmaker said Saturday, Xinhua reported.

"Any attempt by Egypt to impose the reconciliation agreement would be a mere ink on paper and will not find its way into implementation," said Ismail al-Ashqar, the lawmaker of the Islamic movement. "The origin of the dialogue is understanding and harmony."

Egypt said it was determined to declare the Palestinian agreement no more than July 7 though Hamas and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement did not yet settle problematic issues.

The dialogue aims at forming a unified Palestinian government restoring political ties to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-ruled West Bank. The rift widened after Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007.

Meanwhile, al-Ashqar rejected Fatah statements that 20 Hamas- affiliated prisoners were released from the Palestinian National Authority's (PNA) jails in the West Bank as part of an agreement to end the politically-motivated arrests among Hamas and Fatah supporters.

"The number of Hamas' prisoners in the West Bank has reached 750 and this is dangerous because the security forces there arrest more than what they free," he added.

Prior to July 7, Palestinian factions will hold a series of talks in Cairo in a bid to bridge more gaps between Hamas and Fatah.